System and method for improving quality of telematics data

ABSTRACT

Each of multiple vehicle data collection devices are configured to collect data streams associated with operation of a vehicle. The data streams include time-stamped speed data. A transmitter is configured to transmit the data streams. An analytics server is configured to receive the data streams transmitted by the transmitter and to process the data. In connection with the processing, data streams with at least one common time stamp are identified. The time-stamped speed for one of the data streams at a first time interval is compared to the time-stamped speed for another of the identified plurality of data streams at a second time interval, where the second time interval comprises the first time interval plus an additional time increment. Based on the comparison, it is determined whether the two of the plurality of data streams are associated with a same trip or a different trip.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to methods and systems for improving the qualityof telematics data originating from motor vehicle systems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention are further directed to a vehicle datacollection and analysis system. Each of multiple vehicle data collectiondevices are configured to collect data streams associated with operationof a vehicle. The data streams include time-stamped speed data. Atransmitter is configured to transmit the data streams. An analyticsserver is configured to receive the data streams transmitted by thetransmitter and to process the data. In connection with the processing,distinct data streams with at least one common time stamp areidentified. The time-stamped speed for one of the data streams at afirst time interval is compared to the time-stamped speed for another ofthe identified plurality of data streams at a second time interval,where the second time interval comprises the first time interval plus anadditional time increment. Based on the comparison, it is determinedwhether the two of the plurality of data streams are associated with asame trip or a different trip.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing summary, as well as the following detailed description ofembodiments of the invention, will be better understood when read inconjunction with the appended drawings of an exemplary embodiment. Itshould be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to theprecise arrangements and instrumentalities shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary method of the present invention;

FIG. 1B illustrates a logical diagram of exemplary computer architecturein accordance with embodiments of the present invention; and

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary system architecture of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

The present invention relates to a telematics system and method thatinvolves using one or more devices to collect data associated with theoperation of one or more motor vehicles. Such data may be analyzed by aninsurance company and used in connection with determining insurancerates and associated premiums. As described more fully herein, such datamay be collected by way of multiple devices. While such devices and datacollection techniques are conventional, their use presents a technicalproblem. More particularly, a technical problem arises in connectionwith use of this telematics data when the insurance company receivesmultiple data streams, from multiple different devices, and needs tomake a determination as to which of the data is associated with a sametrip (i.e., collected using two different devices) and which of the datais associated with different trips. Only one set of data associated witheach trip is to be considered in connection with determining insurancerates and associated premiums. The present invention solves this problemby providing a method of determining whether the data collected bymultiple different devices is associated with the same trip, ordifferent trips. In this way, the technical problem is solved byimproving the quality of the data available to the insurance company.

The techniques described herein can also be used to determine whethertwo vehicles are making the same trip.

Generally, the present invention involves comparing, at each second ofan identified trip, the speed associated with data from two collectionstreams. An algorithm is then applied and the result is considered. Thesmaller the numerical value of the result, the more likely it is thatthe two data streams under analysis are associated with the same trip.In some embodiments, the analysis is expanded to account for time stampsbeing out-of-synch due to clocks in the devices not being synchronized.In such embodiments, the algorithm is re-run several times against thetime stamped data, where the time on one of the data streams isstaggered each time it is run. Thus, for example, a data stream ondevice 1 is shifted ahead by one second (and then 2 seconds, and then 3seconds etc. up to some extended period, e.g., 5 minutes), and comparedto a data stream for device 2. In certain embodiments, the process isrepeated with the data stream switched—i.e., the data stream on device 2is shifted ahead by one second (and then 2 seconds, and then 3 secondsetc. up to some extended period, and compared to a data stream fordevice 1). This results in a series of scores, which are reviewed toidentify the minimum scores across the collection of scores, thusindicating matching trips based on a predetermined threshold. Theanalysis can be performed on trip segments. This is useful because somedevices do not collect data continuously and, instead, report multiplesegments of data streams for a single trip.

The device used to collect the data to be analyzed may comprise one ormore mechanical objects. Such device may be any device that is capableof receiving and transmitting data in accordance with the methodologydescribed herein and collecting speed and associated time stamps. Forexample, the device may be a device that connects to and receives datafrom (wirelessly or wired) the on-board diagnostics system of a vehicle,or may be a mobile phone that either collects data from the on-boarddiagnostics system of a vehicle or has the capability to sense/collectvehicle data itself. By way of specific example, the device may be anOBD-II plug-in device that pulls position timestamp and speed data. Thedevice may also be a smart phone application that pulls either GPSlatitude and longitude or GPS speed and the position timestamp. Thedevice may also be a connected car that provides speed and positiontimestamp. Thus, for example, a non-exhaustive list of devices includes:a device plugged into a vehicle's OBD-II port, a connected vehicle, aSmartphone, a device placed in a vehicle but not directly connected tothe vehicle's data bus, or any combination of two or more devices. Allcollection methods are within the scope of the present invention, solong as speed and time stamps are collected. The device transmits thedata that it collects, e.g., wirelessly, over a computer network orusing cellular telephone communications.

The data may be collected by a variety of different collection methods.For instance, an OBD-II device can collect data by reading specific dataelements coming from the vehicle's data bus (e.g., vehicle speed), whilea smart phone would make use of GPS satellites to derive driving speeddata. Other known collection methods are within the scope of the presentinvention.

As noted above, time stamped speed data is collected and used inconnection with the present invention. Speed data may be collected inany of a number of ways as described above. A timestamp is a specificpoint in time denoted by the year, month, day, hour, minute, second andfraction of a second. These are typically provided in some variation ofMM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS.ssssss.

In some embodiments, location can be used to identify duplicate tripsinstead of speed. In such an embodiment, the distances recorded by twodevices would be compared instead of the speed. More particularly, thedistance between two points at each second can be calculated and thenthe average distance between every pair of points can be found. As inthe previous example, the lower the number, the more likely the tripsare one in the same. Thus, for example at time t1, the first data streamhas recorded a GPS point of (Latitude1, Longitude1) and the second datastream has recorded a GPS point of (Latitude2, Longitude2). The distancebetween these two points can be calculated as distance at time t1.Similarly, the distance between the GPS points at time t1+1 can becalculated. Once all of the applicable distances have been found, anaverage of the distances can be derived. The lower the average distancebetween the data points from the two data streams, the more likely thetrips are to be one-in-the-same.

The present invention involves a computer-implemented process thatdetermines if data collected by two different device/collection methodsis associated with two different trips or the same trip. The process isdescribed with reference to FIG. 1A. In one exemplary embodiment, in afirst step, the two trips that could be one-in-the-same trip areidentified in step 100. In some instances, due to differences in howdata is collected across platforms, a trip collected by device/methodcombination 1 could be a subset of a trip collected by device/methodcombination 2 or vice versa. Thus, in one embodiment, trips areidentified by looking at all trips taken that are associated with apolicy. The trip start and trip end times are considered to determine ifany of the trips overlap (e.g., if any time stamp in trip 1 is betweenthe start and end time in trip 2, it would be considered as a potentialmatch, and vice versa). For each combination of overlapping trips, thealgorithm is performed as described below. While in the exemplaryembodiment the trips under consideration are those connected with asingle policy, as will be understood, the same process can be undertakenfor any two (or more) trips, regardless of whether the trips areassociated with a same policy.

As used herein:

Speed from trip one at Timestamp i: Speed_(Trip)1(i)

Speed from trip two at Timestamp i: Speed_(Trip)2(i)

Number of observations: n

For the two trips identified in step 100, the timestamps are matched, instep 110. In an exemplary embodiment, all timestamps are matched at thesecond level. However, it is possible to perform this analysis atsub-second level or with time intervals exceeding one second.

If two or more observations have been recorded for a trip at the sametimestamp precision, the speeds are averaged to generate a speed at thegiven timestamp precision. That is, if the desired timestamps are to beat the second level and two distinct observations are recorded at thesame time stamp, for example, speed is 70 at Oct. 17, 2017 13:54:55.13and speed is 74 at Oct. 17, 2017 13:54:55.27, the speed utilized wouldbe 72 for the timestamp Oct. 17, 2017 13:54:55.

Any timestamp that only has speed calculations from one device/methodcombination will be ignored for computational purposes. This can occurfor any of a number of reasons (e.g., one trip is a subset of the othertrip and the timestamp is not present on both trips; the timestamp didnot have a corresponding speed recorded from one device/methodcombination; or for one of the trips, the speed recorded at a timestampfrom one or both of the trips was of questionable accuracy for somereason).

Once the trips are matched on a second-by-second basis, the followingformula may be used to calculate a match score, in step 120:

${MatchScore} = \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\left( {{Speed}_{{Trip}\; 1{(i)}} - {Speed}_{{Trip}\; 2{(i)}}} \right)^{2}}{n}$

A lower MatchScore indicates a higher degree of certainty that the tripsare one-in-the-same.

Because internal clocks from two different devices may not be in sync,the foregoing steps are repeated but with the trip data streams offsetby one second, in step 125, effectively changing the MatchScore formulato be:

${MatchScore} = \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\left( {{Speed}_{{Trip}\; 1{({i + 1})}} - {Speed}_{{Trip}\; 2{(i)}}} \right)^{2}}{n}$

Table 1 provides an example of this aspect of the process for a smallsegment of a trip.

Trip 2 Time Stamp Trip 1 Timestamp Match Score 1 Match Score 2 MatchScore 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/1/1017 10/1/1017 10/1/1017 10/1/101716:00:00 16:00:00 16:00:01 15:59:59 10/1/1017 10/1/1017 10/1/101710/1/1017 16:00:01 16:00:01 16:00:02 16:00:00 10/1/1017 10/1/101710/1/1017 16:00:02 16:00:03 16:00:01 10/1/1017 10/1/1017 10/1/101710/1/1017 16:00:03 16:00:03 16:00:04 16:00:02 10/1/1017 10/1/101710/1/1017 10/1/1017 16:00:04 16:00:04 16:00:05 16:00:03 . . . . . . . .. . . .

Once this foregoing step is completed for as many iterations as requiredor desired, the minimum match score from all the iterations is thenselected as the match score for the two trips, in step 130. As statedpreviously, a lower score indicates a higher degree of certainty thatthe two trips are one-in-the-same.

With reference to FIG. 1B, an exemplary logical computer architecturethat may be used to implement embodiments of the present invention isillustrated. New trip data is received by analytics server 140 (e.g.,from a data aggregator, or directly). The trip data is ingested, whichinvolves, in an exemplary embodiment, standardization of the data andauditing. As part of ingesting the trip data, analytics server 140processes the data to identify duplicate trips, as described herein.Once determined, the match score data is sent, along with other data, torate processing server 160. Rate processing server 160 processes thematch score data to decide which data to use in connection withdetermining whether discounts and/or policy adjustments are available(i.e., thereby ensuring that data that is collected from two differentdevices, but is really associated with the same trip, is not countedtwice). Score data is stored in database 150. The consumer's policy fileis updated and administration is performed on the consumer's automobileinsurance policy to reflect a new rating. The consumer is presented withnew policy documents, which reflect any new rate offered.

In some embodiments, the methods are carried out by a system thatemploys a client/server architecture such as, for example, thecollection of components illustrated and described with reference toFIG. 1B. Such exemplary embodiments are described as follows withreference to FIG. 2. The data that may be used as an input to thesystem, and the outputs from the system, may be stored in one or moredatabases 201. Database server(s) 202 may include a database servicesmanagement application 203 that manages storage and retrieval of datafrom the database(s) 201. The databases 201 may be relational databases;however, other data organizational structures may be used withoutdeparting from the scope of the present invention.

One or more application server(s) 204 are in communication with thedatabase server 202. The application server 204 communicates requestsfor data to the database server 202. The database server 202 retrievesthe requested data. The application server 204 may also send data to thedatabase server 202 for storage in the database(s) 201. The applicationserver 204 comprises one or more processors 205, non-transitory computerreadable storage media 207 that store programs (computer readableinstructions) for execution by the processor(s), and an interface 206between the processor(s) 205 and computer readable storage media 207.The application server 204 may store the computer programs referred toherein.

To the extent data and information is communicated over a network (e.g.,the Internet or an Intranet), one or more network servers 208 may beemployed. The network server 208 also comprises one or more processors209, computer readable storage media 211 that store programs (computerreadable instructions) for execution by the processor(s), and aninterface 210 between the processor(s) 209 and computer readable storagemedia 211. The network server 208 is employed to deliver content thatcan be accessed through the communications network 212, e.g., by an enduser employing computing device 213. When data is requested through anapplication, such as an Internet browser, the network server 208receives and processes the request. The network server 208 sends thedata or application requested along with user interface instructions fordisplaying a user interface on device 213.

The computers referenced herein are specially programmed to perform thefunctionality described herein.

The non-transitory computer readable storage media (e.g., 207 or 211)that store the programs (i.e., software modules comprising computerreadable instructions) may include volatile and non-volatile, removableand non-removable media implemented in any method or technology forstorage of information such as computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data. Computer readable storagemedia may include, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, ErasableProgrammable ROM (EPROM), Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM(EEPROM), flash memory or other solid state memory technology, CD-ROM,digital versatile disks (DVD), or other optical storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store thedesired information and which can be accessed by the computer system andprocessed.

A computer is required to process the data gathered by the device atleast because the volume of data processed by the system isextraordinarily large—e.g., hundreds of millions of seconds of drivingdata on a daily basis.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes could bemade to the exemplary embodiments shown and described above withoutdeparting from the broad inventive concept thereof. It is understood,therefore, that this invention is not limited to the exemplaryembodiments shown and described, but it is intended to covermodifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention asdefined by the claims. For example, specific features of the exemplaryembodiments may or may not be part of the claimed invention and featuresof the disclosed embodiments may be combined. Unless specifically setforth herein, the terms “a”, “an” and “the” are not limited to oneelement but instead should be read as meaning “at least one”.

It is to be understood that at least some of the figures anddescriptions of the invention have been simplified to focus on elementsthat are relevant for a clear understanding of the invention, whileeliminating, for purposes of clarity, other elements that those ofordinary skill in the art will appreciate may also comprise a portion ofthe invention. However, because such elements are well known in the art,and because they do not necessarily facilitate a better understanding ofthe invention, a description of such elements is not provided herein.

Further, to the extent that the method does not rely on the particularorder of steps set forth herein, the particular order of the stepsshould not be construed as limitation on the claims. The claims directedto the method of the present invention should not be limited to theperformance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in theart can readily appreciate that the steps may be varied and still remainwithin the spirit and scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle data collection and evaluation systemcomprising: a plurality of vehicle data collection devices associatedwith a vehicle, the plurality of vehicle data collection devicesconfigured to collect a plurality of data streams associated with thevehicle, wherein each of the plurality of data streams comprisestime-stamped speed data; a plurality of transmitters configured totransmit the plurality of data streams, wherein each of the plurality oftransmitters is communicatively coupled to one of the plurality ofvehicle data collection devices; and an analytics server configured toreceive the plurality of data streams transmitted by the plurality oftransmitters and to process the plurality of data streams, theprocessing comprising: (i) identifying two or more of the plurality ofdata streams with at least one common time stamp, the two of theplurality of data streams being associated with the vehicle; (ii)comparing, at a time interval, the time-stamped speed data for one ofthe identified data streams to the time-stamped speed data for anotherof the identified data streams to generate a comparison value; and (iii)based on the comparison value, determining whether a set of the two ormore of the identified data streams are associated with a same trip or adifferent trip.
 2. The system of claim 1 wherein the time interval is asecond.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of vehiclecollection devices are housed in the vehicle during operation of thevehicle.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein each one of the plurality ofvehicle collection devices connects to and receives data from anon-board diagnostics system associated with the vehicle.
 5. The systemof claim 1, wherein the processing further comprises: filtering outtime-stamped speed data that is only associated with one of theplurality of vehicle data collection devices.
 6. The system of claim 1,wherein comparison value indicates whether the two of the plurality ofdata streams are associated with the same trip or the different trip. 7.The system of claim 1, wherein the comparison value is compared to apredetermined threshold value to determine whether the two of theplurality of data streams are associated with the same trip.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the at least one common time stamp is roundedto the nearest second.
 9. A vehicle data collection and evaluationsystem comprising: a plurality of vehicle data collection devicesassociated with a vehicle, the plurality of vehicle data collectiondevices configured to collect a plurality of data streams associatedwith the vehicle, wherein each of the plurality of data streamscomprises time-stamped speed data; a plurality of transmittersconfigured to transmit the plurality of data streams, wherein each ofthe plurality of transmitters is communicatively coupled to one of theplurality of vehicle data collection devices; and an analytics serverconfigured to receive the plurality of data streams transmitted by theplurality of transmitters and to process the plurality of data streams,the processing comprising: (i) identifying two or more of the pluralityof data streams with at least one common time stamp, the two of theplurality of data streams being associated with the vehicle; (ii)comparing the time-stamped speed data for one of the identifiedplurality of data streams at a first time interval to the time-stampedspeed data for another of the identified plurality of data streams at asecond time interval to generate a comparison value, the second timeinterval comprising the first time interval plus an additional timeincrement; and (iii) based on the comparison value, determining whethera set of the two or more of the identified data streams are associatedwith a same trip or a different trip.
 10. The system of claim 9 whereinthe first time interval is a second and the additional time increment isa second.